Enduring
by Eternal Payne
Summary: Issei is born centuries earlier and in a much different place. But with a new push looming in the Great War, what difference can one low-class Devil make, and more importantly to Issei, how will he gather a harem?
1. Assemble the Pieces

I do not own Highschool DxD. Any parts that resemble the anime, manga or light novels are likely from them.

I don't believe there is an accurate timeline of HSDxD back story. Devils are said to live for ten thousand years (Volume 7, Life 1, Part 4) but how do they know that? According to the Biblical scholars God created everything in 4004 B.C. so that would only make the oldest Devils 6000ish.

Anyway, I'm going to be making it up as I go along, with a century for a Devil equivalent to a year for a Human. That would mean if Rias and Sirzech were Human there would be about a decade between them. I'll be putting the Civil War at about 1500 A.D. as Agrippa is currently the oldest known resurrected Devil, having died during 1535, so I'll say that the current Maou are about 750 when the series begins. With an age gap of 3000 years between each generation (Equalling 30 for a human), with Vali at about 16 when the series starts, his father would be about 3000 (similar to Venelena Gremory), Rizevim would be about 6000, and the original Lucifer (if he was alive) would be about 9000, along with the rest of his generation, who would now be dying of old age giving the other devils a figure for their lifespan.

Huh, that maths actually kind of works, I think.

- E.P - E.P -

Issei was a fairly ordinary low-class Devil born to unremarkable parents, with all his grandparents having perished during the war against Heaven. They lived in territory owned by the Lucifuge and in doing so had had to pledge their allegiance to the House of Lucifuge. His Mother worked as one of the many maids in their castle whilst his Father was one of the many Devils who dealt with the only payment a Human could make for a Devils Service.

Their Soul.

All in all, Issei was no different from any of the other Devils born during this time. And a great many were born, a most of the more important House had been graced by the birth of an Heir in recent years, and there was talk that the Lord Lucifer himself was debating a new push in the war against Heaven when they grew older.

With Heirs who would become the new most powerful leaders and millions of House-less low-class foot soldiers, Hell might be able to conquer the Heavens. Most of the Houses were looking forward to this and had begun to train their Heirs in anticipation, even if the commoners were reticent, not wishing for the lives of their children to be thrown away.

But what did the Great Satans care for the opinions of the commoners.

Issei would have been a forgettable member of Hell's faceless Legions, if it weren't for one meeting that would change the course of his life forever.

- E.P - E.P -

A seven year old Issei was wandering around the park near his home when he saw the man, his wings hidden and covered by an elegant coat.

The park was fairly quiet, the combination of a devils long lifespan and quick maturity meant there were only a few girls playing together whilst their mothers watched over them. Unfortunately, this also meant that Issei didn't have any male friends his age, and he didn't want to be friends with girls.

Girls were icky.

Still, Issei walked over to the man who was so busy staring that he didn't notice his approach. After a few futile minutes waiting for the man to notice him, Issei decided to work out just what had the man so engrossed. It wasn't easy, the man was much taller than Issei but he seemed to be staring at the young-looking mothers, more specifically, their chests.

"Mister?" Issei asked, tugging on the man's sleeve, "What are you doing?"

"Hm?" The man replied, looking down at Issei with a surprised expression.

"What are you looking at?" Issei asked again.

"I'm looking at those beautiful women, of course," The Devil answered, "What else would I be doing?"

Issei considered this for a moment before asking, "Why?"

"Why?" The man said, confusion evident on his face, "Because female Devil's figures are Lord Lucifer's gift to male Devils, it is our duty to ogle them, how can you not know this?"

"Duty?" Issei parroted blankly.

"Yes!" The Devil cried "Our duty to ogle, grope and suck breasts!"

"...Are you sure?" Issei asked slowly, turning the idea over in his mind. There were times when his Father seemed to stare at his Mothers chest after all...

"I am Shamdon Asmodeus!" The now identified man shouted, "Grandson of Lord Asmodeus himself! I am never wrong!"

"Wow..." Issei murmured, looking up at the High-class Devil.

"I suppose you're only a year or so older than my son, Creuserey" Lord Shamdon muttered, "Still, you'll understand when you're older and then it will be your duty, understand?"

"Yes, Lord Shamdon," Issei replied respectfully.

"Hm," Lord Shamdom sighed before giving an imperious wave, "Now leave me, I have an important meeting with Lord Lucifuge and I cannot afford for you to hold me up."

- E.P - E.P -

If it had been any other Devil who had been told this then it would simply have been forgotten as they grew up and nothing would have come of it. Unfortunately for Issei, Puberty was about to hit him.

And it hit him Hard.

- E.P - E.P -

Six years later

Issei stared down at his lower body in disappointment, a lingerie magazine discarded next to him on his bed. He'd mean pleasuring himself to the images inside it as well as his memories of peeping on the women who lived nearby. Those Memories were few and far between though, their magic making it too dangerous for Issei to attempt it as often as he would like. In comparison to the small fireballs they could throw or hose-like blasts of water, Issei could barely make more light than a match or enough water to fill a shot glass.

Hence the magazine.

Nevertheless he'd it had been rather enjoyable, the only problem was that he was still horny, he still wanted to fap but his body?

Well, that was all tired out.

He could go twice, maybe three times before his body refused to cooperate but that wasn't nearly enough to satisfy his lust. He had been trying to train himself to go longer but it was a slow process and he didn't know any magic that would allow him to go for longer and, given the only people who would teach him were his parents, he wasn't willing to ask for help.

Still he could try to make a technique but he had no idea where to start!

Issei knew how to gather and channel his magic out of his body to create a spell but could he then channel it back into his body to make himself last longer?

Perhaps he could give it a try...

- E.P - E.P -

"AAAAARRRGGH!"

Issei's Mother and Father glanced at each other when they heard the scream from upstairs before turning away, is Father busying himself with the paper, whilst his Mother stared out of the window.

"Nice weather we're having, isn't it," She said, carefully ignoring the swearing from above.

"Bit cloudy on the horizon, though," Issei's Father replied even as something started banging onto the ceiling.

- E.P - E.P -

It was nearly a month before Issei was healed up and mentally prepared enough to try again, and even if that technique might work with enough practice, he wasn't willing to try it again. Still perhaps he was on to something there. Maybe, rather than release it from his body then bring it back, he should not let it leave his body in the first place?

Issei summoned up some energy cautiously, remembering the painful failure from before, and slowly tried to direct it to his groin. It was... difficult, to say the least, still he pushed onwards, trying again and again to achieve the goal of being able to fap for longer.

It... didn't work. All the energy he could muster was seemingly floating around inside his body fairly evenly, so perhaps he had succeeded, even if it was much lower than what he had intended. Leaning over he pulled out his porn stash from beneath his bed, cunningly disguised as a box marked 'Old Toys', and retrieved some material.

His was about to begin when he noticed that all of the magic was quickly seeping out of his body, and unless he concentrated really, really hard, too hard to actually fap, then he would lose all of the magic before he could take advantage of it.

It seemed he needed practise.

Lots and lots of practise.

- E.P - E.P -

Over the next few months and eventually years Issei got better and better with his nameless technique. Once he had managed to hold the magic in with a fairly low amount of concentration, something that would have taken most Devils a month or so but ended up taken Issei the best part of a year, he didn't bother to take it any further. As long as the magic was limited to inside his body, he could hold the technique for as long as he concentrated.

After a bit of testing, Issei had determined that his spell depended on his base toughness, then multiplied that by his magical strength, making him roughly twice as tough. Still, that only allowed him to go for twice as long, so he tried to increase both his base toughness and his magical strength with... varying results.

Asking his parents for tips on how to get stronger magically, whilst being careful to leave out why he wanted to be stronger, all they could really do was to give him some basic exercises, concentrating his magic into a shape and so on, and tell him to keep practising.

Oh, and that imagination was key.

As for toughness, he just tried to get fitter, lifting weights and jogging were his two main exercises, although a lifting a couple of rocks he found and the running the length of his back garden again and again weren't exactly professional methods.

Still, bit by bit, he got better, until he could fap more than two dozen times in a row. Issei thought that was something to be proud of. Didn't mean he was actually going to tell anyone about it.

Although he did learn to take frequent breaks for water when he dehydrated himself so badly he had to stay in bed for a week. He never told his Mother how it happened.

Still as he'd grown up he'd become more and more attracted to the girls who lived nearby and wished that just one of them would agree to date him. Unfortunately as a growing lad his fantasies warped and changed until one day Issei woke up with one though in his mind, one ambition in his heart.

"I want a Harem."

This however, was easier said than done. The only Devils who did have multiple partners were high-class devils and Issei was most certainly not one them. If he wanted a Harem he'd have to get promoted twice, attract the attention and love of a girl from one of the seventy-two pillars, then convince her to allow him to have multiple mistresses and actually find said mistresses.

Taking it one step at a time, the first step was to get promoted. He could get an excellent contract that would impress all his superiors and allow him to be promoted... but he didn't know how to make contracts. That left Military accomplishments... but he couldn't use any offensive magics particularly well.

All in all, it seemed like an impossible to task for a talentless, low-class Devil. But Issei really, really wanted it.

- E.P - E.P -

Eventually though, the good times ended and when Issei was seventeen the order was passed through each of the seventy-two pillars for them to assemble their Legions. Where Issei lived, each family that had pledged itself to the House of Lucifuge was ordered to send at least one member to join their Legion.

Neither Issei nor his Father had wanted to let his Mother go, so who would go would be between the two of them. To be honest neither of his parents had wanted Issei to go, but his Father was arguable less talented than Issei was, and when Issei revealed his durability technique they had eventually relented and agreed that he would be the one to go.

When the day arrived for Issei to leave, there were many tears shed and his Mother hadn't let go off him all day.

"Mum," Issei said patiently, stood in the hallway with his Mother clinging to his arm and his Father leaning against the wall, "I have to go now."

"They shouldn't be able to do this," Issei's Father muttered, fists clenched, "They sending you out there to die and we can't do anything about it."

"I know Dad," Issei replied, still trying to untangle himself from his Mother's arms, "But that's the way Hell is."

"I know Issei," His Father added, "But that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"True," Issei said after a moment as his Mother clutched onto her husband.

"My b-baby's going a-away," She sobbed, her husband rubbing her back soothingly.

"I'll be fine, Mum" Issei replied, before pasting a dopey expression on his face, "But you could have another? I'll be looking forward to seeing a little sister when I get back."

She giggled lightly before speaking through her sniffles, "M-maybe in a few cen-centuries, but you be s-sure to come ba-back safe."

"I will Mum," Issei replied, opening the door as he did so, "I can't die until I achieve my dream!"

"Will it give me gra-grandbabies?" She asked.

"Lots of 'em."

- E.P - E.P -

Issei was rather surprised at how simple the headquarters of the Lucifuge Legion were. There were some rather nice buildings in the centre, probably the quarters for the Lucifuge themselves seeing as they were walled off, but around that were little more than ramshackle tents and ordinary looking common Devils.

New arrivals were being directed to the largest tent and Issei joined the queue to enter. It wasn't exactly moving fast, the sheer amount of Devils slowly the process down, but eventually Issei arrived at the front of the queue where he was given a ragged bedroll, blanket and uniform, being warned not to lose them as they were property of the Legion, as well as directions to the squad he would be joining, Two-Four-Five.

It took Issei a little time to find his squad, the city of tents being laid out in no particular order, but when he did, he stuck his head inside the tent and hesitantly asked, "Is this squad Two-Four-Five?"

"Yeah," A scarred older man replied gruffly, "You one of our squad members?"

"I think so," Issei said, walking inside the tent fully, "My names Issei-"

"I don't care," The man grunted, abruptly cutting Issei off, "Come in, sit down and shut down. We'll do introductions when the last of you arrive."

The inside of the tent was pretty bare, four bedrolls set down with gear on top of them, with three of them currently occupied. The first was a woman with short blonde hair held back in a ponytail that appeared to be in her late twenties, although for Devils that meant very little, she could be a few thousand years old. Still she had a full figure, something Issei approved of as he swept his eyes over her, unless until he reached her face where her grey eyes were looking at him with disapproval.

The next two appeared to be fairly similar, a boy and girl about Issei's age both with green hair and brown eyes. They appeared to be much friendlier, the girl rolling her eyes when she glanced at the older man while the boy smiled good-naturedly. He was fairly sure that they actually were his age, most men didn't bother with age manipulation, whilst the girl's still developing figure meant that she actually was in her teens, rather than those women who looked fifteen but had massive boobs.

As Issei spread his bedroll in one of the gaps next to the green haired boy he surreptitiously eyed the older man. He had short black hair and a neatly trimmed beard with a rugged face although his looks were somewhat ruined by the scars criss-crossing bits of his face. After setting his newish gear out he sat down, not willing to break the silence the older man was enforcing.

Just as it started to get uncomfortable another person pushed their way into the tent. It turned out to be another older man, although this one had a much kinder expression in his blue eyes than the other. He had short brown hair and his own armful of gear in front of him.

"Squad Two-Four-Five?" He asked slowly, looking over each of the others in the tent.

"Yeah," The Black haired man replied, "You Hiisi?"

"That's me," The newcomer said with an unsure chuckle.

"Right, get in here," The oldest man said, the Devil called Hiisi doing as the older Devil ordered, "Now that all you commoners are here we'll do the introductions. I'm Sir Abraxan and you'll be calling me Sir from now on. I'm the squad leader and I'm excellent with elemental magics. Mara, you're next."

"Yes Sir," The blonde lady replied, before turning to the rest of them, "I'm Mara and I'm a career Legionary, I joined about half a century ago. I specialise in Earth magics and I'll be your go-to for any problems."

"Yeah," Abraxan interjected, "Don't bring them to me, I won't care. You with the green hair, you're next."

The two of them glanced at each other for a moment before the girl spoke up, "Well, I'm Kali and this is my cousin Vrykol. I'm good with elemental magics I guess."

"Like Kali said," The boy continued, "I'm her younger cousin Vrykol. I'm not particularly good with magic, but I'm pretty handy with my knives."

He brought up his arms and Issei noticed the short blades strapped to the underside of both of his forearms. They were fairly plain and looked to be about a foot or so long.

"Me next, eh," Issei said rubbing his head, "I'm Issei and, well, I'm fairly durable? That's really all I've got."

There was a snort of disgust from Abraxan, but he quickly gestured for their newest arrival to speak.

"Nice to meet you all," He began, "My name is Hiisi and I specialise in healing."

"Great," Abraxan drawled, "I've been assigned a bunch of incompetents. Aren't I the lucky one. Wait here while I talk to the Section Leader, I'll see if I can't get rid of some of you."

He stormed out moments later, the tent door flapping in his wake.

"Don't mind Sir Abraxan," Mara said after a minute, lying back on her bedroll, "He won't get rid of you."

"You mean he's really not that bad?" Issei asked, hoping it was the case.

"No, he's a prick," Mara replied, "But the Section Leader won't give a shit about him or us."

There was an uncomfortable silence after Mara said that, and it dragged on for a few minutes until Hiisi spoke up.

"I'm surprised you're all so young," He started, "Your parents really let you join?"

"They weren't too keen," Kali replied, "But both me and little Vry here have recently gained younger siblings, and we didn't want them to lose their parents."

"Little Vry?" Issei said incredulously, "He's like a foot taller than you are!"

"She still likes to treat me like I'm a kid," Vrykol added, then continued in an obvious whisper, "It's best to humour her delusions."

"Idiot," Kali responded, punching him in the arm playfully, "How about you Issei?"

"Neither of my parents has got any talent for magic, same as me really," Issei started, "But I've got one spell that makes me quite durable, so I'm more likely to survive than they are. Plus, they're my parents, I want to keep them safe."

"I imagine they'd feel the same way about you though," Hiisi said softly, pulling something out of his pocket and passing it over to them, "I know I do. That's my son and wife, and I'd do anything to keep them safe."

Issei looked the photo over as it was passed to him, a small child with Hiisi's brown hair but with brown eyes, the same as those of the young blonde woman holding the boy captured within it.

"Little tyke's always getting himself into scrapes," Hiisi continued, taking the picture back when they had all looked at it, even Mara, "That's why I'm so good at healing, having to patch him up all the time."

"Hm, you'll see him again soon enough," Mara said, finally deigning to join the conversation, "But we'd better get into uniform before Sir Abraxan gets back."

There was muttered agreement as each of them reached over for their gear, Kali and Mara disappearing behind a suddenly forming earthen wall to change. Issei quickly pulled his own gear on, black trousers and boots with a heavy long-sleeved top embroidered with the Lucifuge symbol in grey on the back, none of which fit particularly well but the worst had to be the top which seemed to be two sizes too big.

Seeing Hiisi and Vrykol were too busy getting changed to interfere, Issei sidled over to the wall and leant against it, preparing to peep round.

"Urk!" He choked out as someone grabbed his collar and yanked him backwards. Massaging his throat, Issei glared up at Vrykol smiling face and asked quietly, "The Hell was that for?"

"You were trying to peep on my cousin," Vrykol said, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh, yeah," Issei replied, pondering his dilemma, "You don't mind, do you?"

"She has got a nice arse," Vrykol admitted, releasing Issei as they both turned back to the wall, "Maybe I'll join you."

"You two are remarkably straightforward, eh?" Hiisi added, chuckling lightly.

"Pair of perverts, that's what you are," Kali grinned as she came out from behind the wall and struck a pose, "Like what you see?"

"Oh, yeah," Issei commented, running his eyes up her body, her uniform hugging her figure tightly.

"Mine is way too small," Mara grumbled as the wall crumbled away to reveal her, "Wish I could have kept my old gear."

Issei just drooled when he turned to her, her breasts pushing heavily against the material of her top, stretching it to its limits. They had an excellent size, Issei discerning eye noticed, just slightly larger than a handful and they were being compressed!

"My eyes are up here Issei," Mara added, crossing her arms and inadvertently emphasising her boobs further.

"But my attention is down here," Issei retorted, his eyes not moving an inch, "Could you jump up and down a little?"

"No."

"Huh," Issei sighed then removed his top and passed it over to her, "Mine's too big for me, why don't we swap?"

"One size fits nobody, eh?" Hiisi commented, plucking at his own slightly loose top.

Mara just gave a wry smile as she accepted Issei's top, placing her hands on the bottom of her own and pulling it up a little, revealing a few inches of pale skin. She stopped suddenly, eyeing Issei who was desperately trying to look nonchalant, then summoned the wall back into place.

"Nice try."

"Damn It!"

- E.P - E.P –

When Abraxan returned he informed them that the Legion would be moving out in a few days and that they had best not make him look bad in front of his superiors. After that he left again, apparently not willing to spend much time with those 'Low-Class Idiots' that he thought were beneath him.

Mara however, now wearing Issei somewhat larger shirt, took the opportunity to explain how the Legion worked and what they were likely to be doing.

"Well," She started, "There are two-hundred and sixteen squads in the Legion, numbered from One-One-One to Six-Six-Six. The first digit is the command you're under, One's are Lord Lucifuge's own, us Two's report to Lady Greyfia and the Three's to Lord Euclid."

"Isn't Lord Euclid only eleven?" Kali asked, "Why the Hell is he one of the commanders?"

"Nobles do things differently I guess," Mara replied with a shrug, "Anyway, Lady Greyfia's got her own section, Two-One, and squad, Two-One-One. The other sections are led by her subordinates, mostly high-class Devils although there are a few middles in there. Our Section Leader is Baronet Sothec, he's the guy Sir Abraxan went off to gripe at. Then there's us, squads Two-Four-One to Six, the cannon fodder at the bottom."

"Cannon fodder?" Issei asked, shifting uneasily.

"Yeah," Mara continued, "One on one, any Angel would be able to waste us. All of them wear blessed armour and can wield light spears, not to mention what any of the stronger Angels can do."

"So we're done for then," Vrykol murmured.

"Not quite," Hiisi said, surprising the others when he spoke up suddenly, "We may have the worst troops but the Fallen Angels have got the least numbers by far, not to mention the loss of Angelic equipment. As for the Angels, the Great Enemy has to create each of them so it takes them a long time to replenish their numbers. It's likely they still haven't recovered from our last push."

"Like I said," Mara added, an evil grin of her face, "We're cannon fodder."

That kind of killed the conversation.

- E.P - E.P -

The next few days the squad got to know each other better and better, except for Abraxan, who spend as much time as he could away from their tent. Each of them had demonstrated their magic, or in Vrykol's case his skill with his twin knives, and Mara had offered to help Kali improve her Earth magic.

Mara's magic in particular was impressive, she was quickly able to create thick walls or spears and she was apparently a good teacher as well, knowing where Kali was having problems and helping her out. She admitted that she didn't have much skill in other areas, then blew out a small fireball that was still larger than Issei's best, but that she could give Abraxan a bit of a challenge. In return Kali had offered Mara help with the other elements, something she had grudgingly accepted when Kali had shown her own strengths.

Vrykol had given them a demonstration of his skill that had quickly turned into more of a circus act as he juggled his knives and spun them up and over his body. It looked very impressive but losing control of one of the knives at the end and getting impaled in the foot by it had kind of detracted from his vaunted image.

Fortunately, Hiisi hadn't been boasting when he had spoken of his own skill and had easily removed the blade and patched up the wound. Vrykol was still walking round with a bandage on his foot and Kali had promised that she would never let him live it down. He quickly healed the few scrapes and bruises Issei had gotten from demonstrating his own technique, which mainly consisted of Vrykol hitting him and the others alternating between impressed or amused at the sight.

After one of the practise sessions Mara and Kali went outside to try to build a set of showers to clean themselves up, if you could count a couple of water magic spells and some earthen walls a shower. A couple of minutes after they left Issei turned to Vrykol, the three male low-class devils the only ones left in the tent, and asked,

"I'm going to peep on the girls, you want to join me?"

Vrykol thought about it for a moment, ignoring Hiisi's low chuckles before answering, "Sure, not like we got anything else to do."

The two of them crept out of the tent, being careful to stay quiet as Mara had ordered them not to peek on the threat of pain of, well, pain. Due to the placement of the squads' tents near one of the walls of the Lucifuge compound there was a section of ground that only their squad could get to and this was where the girls had erected their shower block.

It looked like a plain cube of earth, lacking doors or windows, although there must have been some vents on the top as there were a few wisps of steam floating up from the top. The two boys knelt next to one of the walls after circling the block looking for an entrance.

"Now what?" Vrykol asked quietly, being careful not to alert the girls inside.

Issei pondered for a moment, his intellect boosted by the thought of imminent boobs, "Pass me one of your knives will you?"

Vrykol did so and watched as Issei quietly tried to chip away at the walls, eventually creating a small hole. Seeing what Issei was getting at he drew his other blade and set about creating his own peephole.

Once they started looking through the new holes, and their eyes had adjusted, they were slightly disappointed by the amount of steam clouding their vision as well as the lack of girls.

"Were are they?" Issei muttered, face still pressed up against the wall "Vrykol, you see anything? Vrykol?"

Issei removed his eye from the peephole and turned to look at Vrykol, only to find he had disappeared. Hearing someone clearing their throat behind him, he turned further to spot the two fully clothed ladies of squad Two-Four-Five standing behind, Kali looking amused and Mara looking irate and a rather large earth club in her hands.

"Hello Issei," Mara started, moving forward, "I'd like a word with you..."

*Thwack* "Ah, the pain!" Issei cried, "Stop!"

*Thwack* "It hurts!"

*Thwack* "Argh!"

Issei waited a moment, before cracking open an eye and catching sight of Kali standing over him, "Is she gone?"

"Yeah," Kali replied, a sympathetic smile on her face, "The mean lady's gone"

"Whew," Issei muttered, quickly popping up from his foetal position on the ground, not showing any bruises from Mara's assault.

*THWACK* "Glurk!"

""I'm sorry, Issei," Kali said, her face now sporting an evil grin as Mara set about hitting him again, "I lied."

*THWACK*

"Hey, Mara," Kali called, "You got spare club?"

Mara paused a moment before handing over her own club and pulling another out of the ground beside her, "Sure."

*THWACK* *THWACK* "Argh!"

"THWACK* *THWACK* "This is remarkably therapeutic."


	2. Opening Moves

I do not own Highschool DxD. Any parts that resemble the anime, manga or light novels are likely from them.

Don't worry about the O.C.'s, they won't last long. Hopefully the Great War and Civil War will live up to your expectations, and as for his sister... well, his parents were closer to one of the girls than the others.

- E.P - E.P -

It wasn't long before the Legion was ordered to assemble in preparation to move out. Slowly, the great mass of Devils attained some sort of order in the clear space around the camp, squad Two-Four-Five following Abraxan's lead. He was at the head of their little formation, followed by Kali and Vrykol in one row with Issei and Hiisi in the row behind, and Mara bringing up the rear.

They ended up in the middle of the rough formation of devils, a great magic circle, large enough to cover the entire Legion and with the symbol of the Lucifuge in the centre of it forming underneath them. A moment later, and an uncomfortable twisting motion in their guts, the Devils found themselves in overcast green countryside, several other Legions teleporting in around them.

"Where are we?" Kali asked hesitantly, eyeing the new arrivals.

"Papal territory," Abraxan spat, an angry snarl forming on his face, "I can smell it."

Behind him, his squad rolled their eyes at his declaration.

"Hey," Kali spoke up again, gesturing to one of the other Legions, "Take a look at the Gremory Legion."

"Is that armour?" Issei muttered, Hiisi squinting alongside him.

Indeed it was, each member of the Gremory Legion had grey spiked armour on, some with ornate designs and highlighted edges. They were led by a red-headed figure, the only thing noticeable from this kind of distance, aside from his pauldrons stacked atop of one another. Squad Two-Four-Five glanced between the professional formations of the Gremory, each of them marching in sync, and their own threadbare and ill-fitting clothing, shambling formation and nervous troops and came up with one thought.

"We're in the wrong Legion," Kali griped, her cousin nodding along to her words.

"We're not the only ones," Hiisi added, "Look at the Halfas and Zagan, they're in the same boat we are."

"Not all of us," Mara said, "The Lucifuge's personal squads are well armoured professionals, it's just us cannon fodder who aren't."

"Will you stop referring to us as cannon fodder," Issei moaned, "It's really not making me feel better."

"You're a legionary now," Mara retorted, "Maybe if we survive long enough I'll stop it."

"Shut it, the lot of you," Abraxan said angrily, not bothering to face them, "We're marching on Rome and I don't want you lot making me look ba-"

"AMBUSH!" Someone cried, cutting off Abraxan's words.

Above them the clouds parted as Angel after Angel winged their way through, Light spears off all colours and descriptions clutched in their hands. Flying at the head of the host was a great figure, wrapped in light and with twelve white wings protruding from his back, and at his gesture the Angels let loose a great barrage of Light spears onto the Devils assembled below.

"Seraph," Abraxan muttered, glaring at the light emitting figure before turning to his squad, "Mara, cover now!"

"Yes Sir!" Mara replied, the others diving to the ground close to her as the Light spears quickly approached. She grunted as pulled her hands together over her head, two half domes of earth following the motion and crashing together, sealing the squad in the darkened dome.

It didn't stay dark for long though, the light spears punching through without much difficulty, although the dome did stop them from coming to close.

Issei gulped as he stared down the length of one light spear that had been stopped only a few inches from his face while another had been on course for his groin. He wasn't sure which to be more worried about.

"Drop the walls, Mara!" Abraxan shouted from behind Issei, only to repeat himself a moment later, "Mara!"

"No use Sir," Hiisi said, the Devil extricating himself from the light spears that had punched through the walls near him, "She can't hear you."

"Your august medical opinion isn't worth shit to me," Abraxan replied, before turning his head and shouting at Mara again, "Mara, you dumb bitch drop the walls!"

"She's got a light spear through her collar, Sir," Hiisi added.

That brought Abraxan up short for a moment before he shrugged and said, "Looks like we've got to make our own way out then."

He kicked at the wall for a moment, the rest of the squad quickly following suit until they'd made a hole. It took a minute for the five of them to pull themselves through but when they had the sight that greeted them was horrible.

There were dead Devils all over the landscape, pinned to the floor with Light spears whilst the survivors of the initial barrage were being attacked by the Angels. The ground underfoot was being soaked by the blood of the dead Devils, and more than a few living ones, with the overcast skies giving the suddenly war-torn battlefield an ominous look.

Issei would have said that it appeared to be a scene from Hell, but as he lived there and found it quite nice, he lacked an appropriate metaphor.

"Is Mara..." Kali trailed off.

"Yeah," Hiisi replied, "Though I doubt she felt a thing, it happen so- ISSEI, MOVE!"

Issei didn't even think, the fear in Hiisi voices was evident, he simply dived forward, splattering himself in the blood that was pooling on the floor. Even so he wasn't quite quick enough, the Angel that landed behind him taking off the top layer off his skin with a swing from his light spear, leaving the long graze bloody and slicing a thick swathe of fabric off of his top.

Spitting out the mixture of mud and blood that had gotten into his mouth and clearing his eyes of the same foul concoction, Issei looked up at the Angel that had nearly killed him. He was male, he could tell that much, but he features were obscured by his armour, armour that hurt jut to look at, the religious imagery etched into it antithetical to Issei's own Demonic nature.

The Angel leapt back quickly as a stream of fire licked at the ground where he had been standing only a moment before, Abraxan quickly trying to take advantage of the Angels inattention. As Hiisi helped Issei to his feet and staunched the bleeding from his wound, Kali following Abraxan's lead and spitting out her own smaller stream of fire.

The Angel ignored their attacks, switching his attention to Hiisi and jumping forward, spear raised overhead. Issei pushed Hiisi back, jumping to the left as the Angels spear buried itself in the ground and Vrykol sprinting in from the right, lashing out at the angel with his knives. The was a screech of metal as the knives trailed sparks across the shining steel-like plates as they failed to penetrate and Vrykol quickly rolled to the side as the Angel swiped the light spear towards him.

As the Angel turned away from him, Issei launched his own attack, throwing a punch towards the knee joint of the Angels armour hoping to cripple him, only to howl in pain as the blessed armour burned the skin from his knuckles on contact. His momentary lack of concentration was capitalised on by the Angel, Issei managing to jump back in time to leave merely a slight gouge trailing its way across his stomach.

Several fireballs drew the Angels attention as they splattered on to his back and wings, the mild burns left on his feathers the only damage the Devils had managed to inflict so far. A quick lunge forced Kali to dive to the side to stop herself from being impaled, Abraxan's lightning bolt the only thing that stopped the Angel finishing her while she was down.

Issei tried to attack again, this time launching a kick straight in to the back of the Angel's knee, forcing the squad's opponent down to one leg. He jumped back, barely dodging another lightning bolt from Abraxan which struck the Angel square on the chest plate even as he was enveloped by a fireball from Kali.

"Did we get him?" Issei asked, glancing at Kali.

A moment later the fireball started to die down and with a swipe from the Angel's light spear killed it completely, revealing its now blackened armour.

"No Issei, I don't think we did," Kali replied, the squad tightening up as they collectively stared the angel down.

A sudden cry of pain caught everyone's' attention, a nearby duel coming to an end as another Angel, female this time, impaled the Devil she was fighting and turned her attention to them.

Issei thought she looked kind of hot.

"Vrykol, with me!" Abraxan shouted, moving towards their new opponent, "Don't let them link up!"

Issei turned his attention back towards his own opponent and leapt forward suddenly, desperately trying to stop the Angel taking flight. He lashed out with an awkward high kick that the forced the Angel to furl his wings and duck closer to the ground, a stream of fire from Kali giving Issei time to rebalance himself.

He risked a look over at Vrykol and Abraxan's fight, Hiisi hovering uncertainly between the two battles, and saw Vrykol almost dancing around the Angel's slashes and stabs. Vrykol didn't appear to be managing many return attacks with his knives but Abraxan was more than making up for that with his own attacks, some of which were almost hitting Vrykol.

Issei's own attempts at stalling the Angel were probably a little worse, or a lot worse if you counted the half a dozen small cuts and grazes the light spear had left across his body. If he hadn't had his toughness technique some of the Angel's attacks could have gone straight through one of his limbs. Kali was also a lot more cautious with her attacks compared to Abraxan, hesitating if it looked like she might hit her squadmate.

Dropping to the floor, Issei attempted to sweep the Angel's feet out from underneath him only to awkwardly roll out of the way when the Angel stabbed his light spear into the ground where Issei had been crouched. The Angel looked up as he tried to wrench his buried spear out of the ground only to catch a stream of fire in the face from Kali.

There was a sudden scream as the Angel clawed at his helmet, the fire apparently having entered through the eye-slits, ignoring the two Devils who capitalised on his pain. Issei took a flying leap, smashing the Angel in the chest with both feet and knocking him to the ground. Issei quickly jumped to his feet as Kali ran up with an impressive magic circle in her hand, Issei kicking the helmet from the Angels head, revealing his burned visage to the air and prompting another round of screams from the downed Angel. Kali held her hand right in front of the Angel's face before releasing the spell, Issei trying his best to hold the thrashing Angel down as he died.

When the Angel's death throes finally stopped, Issei snatched his badly burned hands trying to restrain his cries of pain. Moments later there was another cry of pain, this one more familiar to Kali, and the two of them span round to see Vrykol, his injured foot trapped between one of the Angel's and the ground.

The Angel swung her light spear round at Vrykol, who was now staggering and unable to dodge her attacks as her had been doing so far. He desperately tried to block with his knives but the light spear cut through them, barely slowing, and sliced across his neck.

"Vrykol!" Kali screamed, her, Issei and Hiisi sprinting up. Issei tried the same tactic he had done on the first Angel, a flying kick that was easily blocked by the female Angel, followed by fireballs from Kali and a bolt of lightning from Abraxan. Hiisi was busy with Vrykol, desperately trying to staunch the flow of blood from his neck.

The Angel backed off then paused for a moment, her head tilted to the side as if listening to a voice the Devils couldn't hear. The standoff continued for a moment until the Angel unfurled her wings and shot into the air, joining her fellows across the battlefield.

"The cowards are retreating!" Abraxan shouted, waving his fist at the Angels. "They know their beaten!"

Issei looked around the battlefield as the Angels disappeared. He could spot maybe a dozen or so Angelic corpses, including the one squad Two-Four-Five had killed, but more than a hundred corpses of Devils and those were just the ones in his line of sight. It certainly didn't look like the Angels had been beaten.

"You lot wait here," Abraxan continued, striding towards where a group of Devils were gathering, "I'll go and retrieve our new orders."

Issei meanwhile hurried over to where Kali and Hiisi had gathered next to Vrykol. Hiisi had sat back, his shirt covered in Vrykol's blood, while Kali was cradling her cousin.

"Is he?" Issei trailed off, leaving the question unasked. Kali's muffled sobs told him all he really needed to know. Hiisi shook his head slowly causing Issei to sink down beside him, both of them staring at Kali as she cried over Vrykol's body.

"Do... Do you want to bury him?" Issei asked weakly, "Mara as well."

Hiisi started, "I'd forgotten about Mara, and she's only been gone ten minutes."

It took them Issei and Hiisi a while to retrieve Mara's body from the pin cushioned domed, the remaining light spears complicating the job immensely. Hiisi couldn't touch them in the slightest before he got badly wounded and Issei wasn't able to hold them longer than a second or so.

Hiisi carried Mara's body back to where Vrykol had fallen, to where Kali had already started digging a pair of graves. They laid Mara's body down next to Vrykol's, the two of them moving to help Kali dig. It was slow work, Issei and Hiisi only able to use their hands leaving Kali's earth magic to do the heaviest work. They tried to keep their minds off recent events, but the mind numbing tedium made it too hard.

They talked a little, words spilling from Kali's lips as she talked of times spent with Vrykol, growing up and having fun together, of small private moments there had shared and times with all of their family. They talked of the morbid irony of Mara's earth techniques being used to dig her grave, of the faults of their superiors and their own inexperience. They gently lowered the bodies in to the shallow graves and filled them in, patting the reddened earth as flat as they could make it.

"You feel better now?" Issei asked, the three of them staring down at the two patches of overturned earth.

"N-not really," Kali replied, rubbing her eyes, "But, thanks all the same."

"Get ready to move you three," Abraxan ordered, striding over to them, "We're retreating before more reinforcements arrive. Apparently we can't take Rome this early."

"Then all this," Hiisi gestured at the ruined battlefield around them, light spears still sprouting from the ground like divine plants, "Was for nothing?"

"Indeed," Abraxan replied, magic circles expanding out from underneath the remaining members of the Lucifuge Legion, "We're returning to the camp."

- E.P - E.P -

The next few days were slow and sombre ones. Whilst the Lucifuge Legion had taken heavy casualties they hadn't taken the same level of casualties as the Zagan Legion had, nearing total, they'd still lost more than a third of their legionaries.

Issei, Kali and Hiisi spent the time training, and hard. Sometimes Abraxan deigned to join them, his condescending remarks sometimes useful but mostly just condescending. They had a fairly decent training method going on by the end of it, Kali would practice her attacks on Issei, allowing him to practice toughening himself and Hiisi to practice healing Issei up afterwards.

Still, there were some problems they had yet to overcome.

"I'm still not strong enough to cut through an Angel's armour," Kali commented after one training session.

"Angelic armour is the best around," Hiisi replied, "Backed by the power of the Great Enemy as it is. You won't be able to cut through it with conventional forces."

"It's a pity we couldn't loot a few suits and use it ourselves," Issei said, idly stretching off.

Abraxan snorted, "Maybe if you were Baronet Sothec you might be able to desecrate Angelic objects, but I can't, and you sure as Hell can't."

"So if we want to protect ourselves," Kali pondered, "We'll have to do so ourselves. Can we borrow your technique Issei?"

"Sure," Issei replied, "Just gather all your magic but rather than do anything with it, allow it to circulate through your body. That's the best I can explain it."

"That's it?" Kali asked surprised, "That seems really easy."

"Heh," Issei chuckled, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "It was something I came up with myself, so it's not exactly a difficult technique."

"So that's why you don't use any other magic," Hiisi said, "If you did so, then you would get weaker as you wouldn't be able to have as much magic inside your body."

"Eh!" Issei shouted, pointing at Hiisi, "It took me ages to realise those weaknesses, how'd you figure them out so quickly?"

"I just thought they were kind of obvious," Hiisi replied, sharing a glance with Kali.

"So do I," Kali added, experimenting with a ball of earth in her hands, "In fact it would probably be useless for us, as we couldn't hold it and use other techniques."

"Useless..." Issei mumbled, drawing in the dirt in his own little corner of woe.

- E.P - E.P -

Eventually gossip about the other battles that had been fought petered back to them from the other Legions and most of it wasn't good news. The Great Enemy had apparently been expecting such a push, even if they hadn't known exactly when, and the Legions had suffered because of it. The forces that had planned on attacking major populations, religious centres and other traditional targets had been ambushed before they could reach them and the Angels had even taken the chance to inflict their own attacks on Hell whilst the Legions had been absent.

Most of the Legions had taken something like a third casualties, although some, like the Gremory and Sitri had taken a fraction of that.

Apparently armouring your subordinates kept them alive, who knew?

They were whispers that the higher class commanders would be changing their plans, something that would normally have been unthinkable seeing as it was only the commoners who had died, so they were obviously unpleased with their lack of success.

Soon though Issei and his squad-mates received their new orders, even if they were only slightly more complicated than the 'March here, kill Angels, that they had received last time. The plan was to ambush the ambushing forces, the sort of genius idiocy that only a high-class Devil could come up with.

Hence, Squad Two-Four-Five's new orders were 'March here, be bait, kill Angels'. Truly their Commanders must have been strategic genius of the highest level.

Still, it didn't feel like anything had changed to Issei, as the Legion formed up once again in the fields around their home camp, those losses somewhat conspicuous. This time though there was a second group forming up close by, full of armoured figures before they teleported off together.

"Who were they?" Issei asked curiously.

"I don't know," Hiisi replied, Kali shaking her head next to him.

"That'll be Duke Lucifuge and the other commanders," Abraxan interrupted, "Their part of the counter-ambush force. Now keep quiet, we'll be moving in a moment."

The squad shifted nervously as the seal of the Lucifuge spread out beneath them and their surroundings blurred to reveal that they were now in the middle of a fairly dense forest.

"Damn, it's cold here," Issei muttered, rubbing his hands together in an attempt to warm them up, "Where do you reckon we are?"

"Somewhere in Northern Europe, I'd guess," Hiisi said shivering as Kali lit a fireball and held it close to herself to keep warm.

"Now what then?" She asked, as the legion tried to regroup from their ruined formation.

"We march," Abraxan ordered.

- E.P - E.P -

It didn't take long for the Legion to emerge from the shadows of the forest and on to an open plain split by a wide river. There was a human town bridging both sides of the river, although that wasn't how the Devils saw it. Due to the size of Hell settlements tended to be much smaller and spread out, so someplace so densely packed could only occur in the largest of Hell's cities.

The town itself was dominated by great church, not quite a cathedral in size, which was illuminated by a single shaft of light shining down from the clouding heavens. There were a few small figures flying around the bell tower and loud peels began ringing out from it. Moments later dozen more figures rose up to join those already flying around the church before the whole group started moving towards the invading Devils.

Squad Two-Four-Five immediately dug in, memories of the previous battle still fresh in their minds. Rather than the obvious dome that Mara had created out of Earth, Kali shifted the ground out from underneath them then covered the newly excavated pit they were now hiding in. Hopefully the end result didn't look any different from the rest of the ground from above, even if abandoning the rest of the Legion felt a little callous.

"It's still dark," Issei muttered from his corner of the pit, "Do you think the Angels have started their attack?"

"Hopefully it'll stay dark," Kali replied, "I can't conjure a fireball without using up too much air, and I don't want to end up with a light spear brightening everything up."

"I guess so..." Issei continued, trailing off as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly only to hold it in front of his face a moment later, "Something dripped on me!"

"Is it raining?" Kali asked curiously.

"No, it's too sticky," Issei replied.

"It's blood," Abraxan stated, spitting the little he'd tasted out of his mouth, "And it's our cue to start fighting."

A moment later and the roof of their pit exploded upwards at Kali's command, revealing the four Devil's to the sunlight and catching a pair of Angels in its grasp. Abraxan hit the first with a lightning bolt to the neck joint of its armour, taking its head clean off, whilst Issei pinned the other and Kali forced a fireball into its helmet.

Once again there were lightning spears stuck into the ground every few metres, some of them pinning the corpse of a Devil to the churned earth. There were still a great many Devils left, and they were putting up a decent fight against the attacking Angels. Abraxan quickly picked out a target, a female Angel some distance away from any of her fellows, and the Squad charged towards her.

She quickly noticed their approach, a light spear forming and being thrown towards them from her right hand as she turned to face them. Issei lashed out with a fist, punching the spear to the side and ignoring the holy sting as he tackled the Angel. As soon as they hit the ground he rolled forward and off the Angels body, allowing Kali and Abraxan to hit her with their own techniques.

"We've got more incoming!" Abraxan shouted, both he and Kali linking back up with Issei and Hiisi, the latter of whom was healing the formers burnt hand.

The enemies Abraxan had called were two male Angels and a single female, the three of them approaching the squad in formation. Each of them lunged forward, their spears held in both hands, forcing the group of Devils to retreat further back lest they be impaled.

Issei stepped forward at the same time as the next attempted strike, using his arm to deflect the spear, aiming to attack one of the Angels joints but he was forced back by one of the other Angels. Both Abraxan and Kali attempted their own attacks but the Angels easily blocked them, the Devils' three opponents covering each other's weaknesses and movements with much more skill than Squad Two-Four-Five could.

Issei managed to block most of the attacks coming towards Himself and Kali, accumulating cuts and burns as he did so, but Abraxan was only concerned with defending himself, and attacks on Issei that he could have blocked were allowed through and the time used to unsuccessfully attack the Angels. Thankfully the Angels couldn't attack Hiisi from his position behind the others, neither he nor Kali being able to do anything other than dodge the light spears.

Around them, more and more of the fellow legionaries were being finished off by the forces of Heaven. Most of the Angels had their wings hidden, similar to the Devils, but those that could be seen were only a single pair on each Angel. Above them however were several Angels with multiple pairs of wings, looking down on their host.

"Argh!" Issei roared in pain, one of the Angels light spears having gone straight through his foot, Kali jumping forward and desperately trying to fend the Angels off. Hiisi took the slight gap she had created to grab the light spear and pull it out of Issei's foot, trying to heal the hole through his foot. A moment later Kali was thrown back into Hiisi, knocking the three off them their feet and leaving Issei lying exposed on his back.

Two of the Angels leapt forward, forcing Abraxan off to the side, whilst the last off them loomed over Issei, her light spear clutched in her hand.

'Is this how I die?' Issei wondered, staring up at Angel, trying to back out her eyes through the slits in her helmet. He could barely make out the other Angels circling above him over the first shoulder, even as the clouds parted and more flying figures descended. They looked slightly different to the others that were already there but all of them shot towards the ground after several flashed of light.

The Angel above Issei looked up just as Issei noticed the difference between the two groups' wings. The new arrivals shared the same wings that Issei himself kept hidden.

"Finally!" Abraxan cried, lightning bolts leaping towards the distracted Angels, "The Counter-Ambush force has arrived!"

Issei thought they had arrived too late as the Angel turned her attention back towards him. She reared back, her spear held above her, just in time to be split nearly in half by an icicle. Dozens more were forming and falling from one of the flying Devils, two of them killing the pair of Angels about to overwhelm Abraxan.

Issei couldn't tear his eyes away as the figure descended, still throwing icicles against the few remaining Angels, their own tactics turned against them. She was wearing form fitting armour, emphasising her every curve, her long silver hair plaited and pinned behind her back. She landed gently nearby Squad Two-Four-Five, her eyes like shining steel as they swept over the squad.

"Lady Lucifuge." Abraxan stated, kneeling in servitude to their commander. Kali and Hiisi followed his lead, Issei joining them a moment later when he managed to get back to his feet. Issei had been vaguely aware that the Heiress of the Lucifuge had been a similar age to himself, but he'd never seen her in person.

Now though, Issei thought, running his eyes up and down her entrancing form, a perverted giggle escaping his lips, he definitely wanted to get closer to her. He'd need to get promoted if he wanted to... fortunately any further malicious plans were ruined by Issei thoughts veering off as he imaged Lady Lucifuge getting much, much closer to him, as in pressed up against him, close to him.

Those boobs...


End file.
